When Oliver awoke it was dark. Looking around he noticed an eerie light coming from behind him. As he was afraid of the dark he naturally followed the light until he reached the source, a sign with glowing lanterns on either side that read “Welcome to the Hellmouth, City of….” Oliver could not make out the rest of the sign as the final words seemed to be scratched away. Beyond the sign a thick fog appeared to be rising from the earth into the air. Oliver looked for another direction to go and hoped he hadn’t taken the wrong path, as he was becoming more frightened by the minute. He noticed movement in the fog and before he could convince himself that he was seeing things, an unearthly child stepped into the light. “Who are you?” Oliver queried, “And more importantly, where the heck am I?” The child cocked its head and replied, “to answer your first question, I am but one of the children of the gods. To answer your second question, you are in a sort of limbo. Today is the day Oliver buys a farm and everything changes.” “I don’t follow,” Oliver responded looking as confused as he felt. The child shook its head and tried to explain, “I hate to tell you, but you are dying, ‘buying the farm,’ ‘kicking the bucket.’ In a few days people will be lining up with flowers for your grave. This place is between life and death, where people can reflect on the sins of the past. Here there is sanctuary for all, and those who wish can write to a loved one and send them a message in their dreams before moving on.” Oliver remembered now, he had been sick for months and was not getting better, but he was old and had lived a good life. The only thing he regretted was leaving his beloved wife behind. “If possible, I would like to leave a message for my wife” Oliver said after thinking about what the child said. “As you wish,” was the reply and a sheet of parchment and a quill appeared from the fog, along with a desk, chair, and ink well. The message read:

Dear Sexy Knickers…

After all these years together, I still think that nickname applies, no matter how you think you look. I still remember the day we met, when you first got the silly nickname in fact. It was my first day on the train job. You had been walking down the side of the street when a couple of rough housing boys ran past you and knocked you head over heels while your skirt went flying up. When I helped you back on your feet and looked into your eyes, I knew I wanted to spend my life with you. Unfortunately, I have come to the end of my life and yours still goes on. I do not wish you to be unhappy, and if you meet another who makes you happy, I would not mind if there was a man about the house again.

Love from beyond, Oliver

When he had signed the note, the child passed him a bottle and a rose. Oliver put the flower and the message for the lady in the bottle, sealed it, and handed it to the child before straightening his jacket and moving forward into the fog.

There are 20 clues hidden in the story, find them and tell me the profession of Oliver.

Are all the clues of a similar nature Yes e.g. are there hidden song titles? lyrics? clues to movie titles? books? None of these

Is replacing specific words with synonyms relevant? nope Is Oliver a randomly chosen name or does it have some significance? a somewhat needed name to make one thing make sense...

I notice there are a couple of metaphors for dying included is this significant? one is significant, up to you to find out how, probably not the way you are thinking now Puts me in mind of the dead parrot sketch from Monty Python - relevant? almost quoted this sketch for pleasure and to throw people off the track, but alas, the sketch is not relevant

Are the clues a form of wordplay? nope Hidden words? only hidden in the sense that you have to "find" the significance of some words or groups of words

Are any of the clues hidden in the quotations? some are spoken within quotes but they are just as important as those that are not Is it relevant that the place is named Hellmouth? same answer as the significance of the name Oliver Would it work just as well for other place names? the story would work, but a clue would be lost

Buying the farm? yesish, more in the way it was stated in the story, and you're missing a part of that oneKicking the bucket? nopeSanctuary? part of one, see above about the farm

Seems to be more than one reference to movie titles, relevant? or horror novels? movie quotes? yes to multiple references, no to your examples

Are you really a new user? yes I am or maybe an existing user with a new name for some reason? I am somewhat honored as I take it that my puzzle is clever enough to be from someone experienced, and this truly is my first. If I misinterpreted your reasoning, I like my idea *grin*

*gives kaylee a doubletake and walks away slowly* So you say, so you say. LOL, she is telling the truth though

Alright TortieKitten, I've managed to find my way thru 10 clues... think I'll need a fresh set of puzzler friends to find more... let me know if you mind if I post what I found (seems a bit early to sp0il?).

It's one of those solutions that when you know have it, you know it. I'll let Tortie answer questions, but there's a good chance you're on to something... and since it's a well-crafted puzzle, and her first, I'm tempted to hold off on sp0iling (or sharing what I have), unless she deems it ok.

Balin - Relevant that Oliver wrote his message on parchment? nope With a quill pen? nope Is the wife's nickname relevant? yope with the same answer as with Oliver and Hellmouth relevance

This is very challenging - I like it!I am glad to hear that others are enjoying this as much as I am

Woodworm - We seem to be watching British TV in the Seventies.

Man About The House? nothing to do with British TV in the case of this puzzleAngels? [City of ...] closeAre You Being Served? [Dear Sexy Knickers ...] Love that show!The Good Life? irrelevantIs 'The Train Job' something similar? yope, but also nothing to do with British TV

Does Oliver have a relevant surname? Oliver Peace? Ollie Gark? That kind of thing? nope

Visconti - Alright TortieKitten, I've managed to find my way thru 10 clues... think I'll need a fresh set of puzzler friends to find more... let me know if you mind if I post what I found (seems a bit early to sp0il?). I think I should let Balin keep trying due to his enjoyment, and the fact that you were the first to get it right by e-mail. I am interested in knowing which 10 clues you have found as some of them are pretty tricky, but if you can e-mail them first that would be great

Woodworm - Also, I wonder if Dr Who might be relevant in some way? yope, Love that show!

Kalira - Argh... I'm 95% sure I have it (or I'm very close), so I don't want to ask any questions for fear of giving it away for anyone who doesn't... sigh feel free to e-mail anytime, I would love to hear what you’ve got

I will be sure to check my e-mail when possible so that I can see when people have the answers. I'm trying to judge how hard this really was, as it was my first puzzle

The clues - are they in the paragraph verbatim? yes Or are the clues - what's the word - clued to in the paragraph? please clarify if possible, but I think the answer may be no if I understand properly

The "yes" answer to the first question makes the second question a No by definition; I was asking if the clues were hinted to by the exact wording used in the paragraph. Sorry for the confusion. that's ok, I guessed as much actually, I just didn't want to jip you of an answer if you were still questioning it

Do the clues consist of just one word? yope Short phrases? yope Entire sentences? nope Is one of the clues "glowing lanterns"? nope

Do all the clues consist of (some number of) whole words? yup Or are partial words included, as the word "lateral" is hidden in the middle of "The Admiral ate Ralston's spaghetti"? nope...but cool idea...

Hmm... I still don't get exactly what the answer to Balin meant. So the clues have something in common as written, as opposed to paraphrased? (so, for example, "sexy knickers" does not need to be replaced by a synonym like "thong", as in idiomuzzles)

Is the connection between the clues a property of the words as letters or sounds (for example, they are all palindromes, spoonerisms, etc.)? or should we be looking for a common context in which the clues appear as a whole?

If the latter, is it something on the LTPF (e.g. they're all titles of old puzzles)?

Hmm... I still don't get exactly what the answer to Balin meant. So the clues have something in common as written, as opposed to paraphrased? (so, for example, "sexy knickers" does not need to be replaced by a synonym like "thong", as in idiomuzzles) correct, clues are word for word as written, it is you job to decide what is a clue and what they all have in common, this will lead you to Oliver's profession

Is the connection between the clues a property of the words as letters or sounds (for example, they are all palindromes, spoonerisms, etc.)? nope or should we be looking for a common context in which the clues appear as a whole? they don't appear together, they have something else in common as seperate entities

If the latter, is it something on the LTPF (e.g. they're all titles of old puzzles)? nope, but a creative idea

internet searching is definitely allowed, esp as some may not know where the clues came from

After a bunch of Googling of phrases, I got one match containing the second instance of the word "bottle" and one involving "buying a farm", both of which are examples of a particular kind of thing (being as vague as possible here) that happened in the same year. But none of the others match to anything in that year. And in fact if this is what we're looking for, it sounds as if lots of the other guesses have been very much OTRT as to the general category of things that is relevant (one that I am VERY unfamiliar with, BTW), though it seems from your responses like they weren't.

After a bunch of Googling of phrases, I got one match containing the second instance of the word "bottle" and one involving "buying a farm", both of which are examples of a particular kind of thing (being as vague as possible here) that happened in the same year. after some googling myself, you are right, those two clues are related to things that happened the same year But none of the others match to anything in that year. because the year is irrelevent, I just happened to like a couple things from that year And in fact if this is what we're looking for, it sounds as if lots of the other guesses have been very much OTRT as to the general category of things that is relevant (one that I am VERY unfamiliar with, BTW)and one that I am a little to familiar with, LOL, though it seems from your responses like they weren't. I am sorry to hear that my responses confused. Some guesses to category were OTRT, however, as of your post the category itself was not guessed

Are they episodes of TV series? First episodes? yes indeed to both! I watch too much TV *grin*

Now all we need is Oliver's profession, and if you guys all want to take a crack at lists (or partial lists) of the clues and what shows they come from, I would very much like to see what you come up with. A full list will be provided by me in the end

The ones I can remember or have discovered, aside from the two Balin's put down, in no particular order:

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) "An Unearthly Child" (Doctor Who) "Everything Changes" (Torchwood -- acronyms are amusing ;-) ) "The Train Job" (Firefly [YAY! random factoid: Though it was first to air, it was not filmed as the pilot... the producers just thought they needed a more "actiony" episode than the original pilot, so they aired that one later in the season and this one in its place -- I'm just chock full of random Firefly trivia :-D]) "Oliver Buys a Farm" (Green Acres) "Sanctuary for All" (Sanctuary) "Man About the House" (Three's Company)? "The Wrong Path" (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) "Sins of the Past" (Xena -- wow, it's been a while since I've seen these last two... do they still show these??)

Is Oliver's profession related to the profession of Oliver in Green Acres? or to television? Is he a screenwriter? producer? Does his work relate specifically to pilot episodes? creating them? watching them?

Regarding difficulty, I honestly think it would have been more difficult if "Dear Sexy Knickers" were not such an easily googled phrase... it seemed kind of obvious that this was supposed to be a clue, so having it be that easy to find that one made it easier to pick out other possibles as well. Of course, that being said, it took me a while to get as many as I have, and we still haven't actually solved the puzzle, so I wouldn't say it was too easy. And don't worry, I watch far too much TV, too ;-)

Great job on coming up with a list of clues...only 2 remain (see below). As for coming up with Oliver's profession, I may have accidentally missled with something I said before. The clues have something in common as written, however solving the entire puzzle may take some wordplay, depending on how you think about things. Now back to answering questions.

Is Oliver's profession related to the profession of Oliver in Green Acres? nope, OTWT or to television? no, in the way that you seem to be thinking Is he a screenwriter? producer? Does his work relate specifically to pilot episodes? creating them? watching them? no to all of these, you're OTWT with the profession, but you definitely have the correct connection between the clues

$light $poyler: I am including in this post a compiled list of all of the clues you guys have come up with. As of now, only 2 are missing. As the connection between the clues was made the others are mostly irrelevent, but I'll let you guys find them unless someone asks me to post the missing 2.

The connection between the clues was that they were all first episode titles. In other words, "pilot" episodes, and in a twisted way this makes Oliver's profession that of a pilot *grin*.

I hope that people liked my puzzle, and that they did not think it too silly. Other shows that I like include things like "Supernatural" whose first episode is simply called "pilot" and that is where my inspiration came from. I was making a list of first episode titles for shows I liked and noticed some were simply called pilot (or in the case of "Pushing Daisies" Pie-lette).

I am glad I could bring a different type of puzzle to the forum, and that people enjoyed it *grin*. As for the last two shows and clues, they are:

19. "Air" - Stargate Universe 20. "Rose" - Doctor Who (2005) I consider this a seperate pilot as it is a newer Doctor Who. I was amazed that nobody caught this one as this new series is the one that I love so very much. I am sure I will enjoy the older episodes as well once I have netflix and can get the DVDs to watch.

Once again, thank you for all of your hard work to solve my silly little puzzle...and now on to the next adventure!

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